"I love the energy of hip-hop," he said. "And for me, there's no division between ballet and contemporary dance. Classical ballet always had character dancing based on folk styles. Why not put it together?" The result was "Firebird," Velasco's 2002 version of the Stravinsky classic, featuring the hip-hop dancers as minions to the Enchanter who has cast a spell on the kingdom. The Culture Shock team added an aura of true menace, infusing an old standard with a hip, contemporary vibe.
And now, to open the San Diego Ballet's 16th season, Velasco has teamed with the hip-hop troupe again to create "Alice in Wonderland," based on Lewis Carroll's classic children's tales. Rather than using the Culture Shock dancers as a group, as he did in "Firebird," the San Diego Ballet choreographer gave the team a more challenging assignment: to create a host of key characters – Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum; the Mad Hatter, March Hare and Door Mouse; the Lion and Unicorn; and the Caterpillar – that pop up during Alice's adventures. "So often, hip-hop dancers are asked to back up some 16-year-old (singer)," Velasco said. "Culture Shock's better than that. I wanted to put the two art forms together with integrity." Judging from an early student preview of the new show, Velasco has done an admirable job of fusing his style, itself a mix of classical, contemporary and social-dance idioms, with the Culture Shock approach, which embraces freestyle, break dancing and communally created choreography. Smartly conceived, inventively choreographed, and sharply danced, this is an "Alice" with attitude. As the curtain opens, Alice (Kristy Cirrillo, perfectly cast) is playing with her cat, Dinah (Rachel Sebastian, lovely), in the dappled glow of a summer afternoon (the beautiful lighting is by Phillipe Bergman). Bored, and a little dreamy, Cirrillo's Alice catches a glimpse of a White Rabbit (Askar Alimbetov, a wonderful dancer). As every child knows, she follows him down the rabbit hole, where many curious experiences await. Velasco has pulled from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" to create an episodic narrative that nonetheless has a beginning, middle and end. Alice's adventures take her from picture-perfect childhood through a sometimes disorienting, sometimes charming and sometimes menacing alternate reality, and then back home, which Alice now sees a little differently. In Wonderland, a newly small Alice swims in a pool of her own tears, a product of her earlier frustration of not being able to fit through the door. Velasco invokes the scene with an ethereal corps of girls in long, pale-blue tutus; their leaps and turns suggest the turbulent waters through which Alice swims. Emerging from the pool, Alice encounters the Caterpillar, whimsically embodied by Culture Shock's Belle Abuyo, Julie Dismukes, Eddie Gutierrez, Rainen Paguio and Mikey Peterson, clad in silver masks and moving mostly in unison. The abrupt shift in rhythmic, musical and choreographic style, which might be jarring in a different context, makes perfect sense in the fantasy realm of Wonderland. Aimed at children but fun for adults, too, "Alice in Wonderland" is that rare beast, an all-ages family entertainment. It's all part of San Diego Ballet's mission to create works that speak to a diverse audience. "Sometimes I want to have a dialogue with adults, and sometimes I want to entertain children," Velasco said. "I love the fact that I can do both."
Jennifer de Poyen: (619) 293-1277; jennifer.depoyen@uniontrib.com